1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a memory media archiving system and more particularly to a system and operating method wherewith even large capacity files can be efficiently subjected to archiving management.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, manufacturers and other companies have needed to preserve enormous volumes of data for a certain period of time or longer, such data including accounting data subject to audit, process management data, design CAD data, LSI data, and other data. However, due to the enormous volume of these data and the low frequency wherewith they are accessed, such companies have been faced with a problem in that the storage space and the like required for managing data is costly, adversely affecting profits.
There are archive keeping service providers the business whereof is to resolve the problem noted above by keeping memory media wherein archive data are stored. In this archive keeping service, the client company itself stores enormous amounts of data on memory media such as magnetic tape (MT) or optical disks or the like, places certain quantities of such memory media in cardboard cartons or the like, affixes management information such as serial numbers to those cardboard cartons, and entrusts the keeping thereof to the archive keeping service provider. The provider archives the entrusted memory media at a location where land prices are low and high storage costs are not incurred, such as in remote mountainous areas.
When the entrusting company needs entrusted data, that company notifies the archive keeping service provider of the relevant serial number or other management information, and requests the return of the group of memory media placed in the cardboard carton or the like. The archive keeping service provider uses a truck or the like to return to the company the memory media group placed in the cardboard carton or the like coinciding with the designated management information. Companies, by using archive keeping service providers such as described above, have implemented archiving at low cost for enormous quantities of data which need to be preserved for a certain period of time or longer and require infrequent access.
With the archive keeping service described above, however, data are subjected to single-batch management by multiple memory media units placed in cardboard cartons or the like. Accordingly, the client must manage which memory media the needed data exist in, which has been a problem.
In order to obtain needed data, clients have had to obtain not only those data, but have had to designate memory media groups in units of cardboard cartons or the like wherein the data are placed.
Furthermore, because physical transportation using a truck or the like must be depended on for the method of obtaining data, it has been impossible to obtain necessary data in a short time or in real time.
In order to resolve such problems as these, making provision for accessing archive data stored on portable media via a network, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H10-254629/1998 and elsewhere, is being proposed.